OneDrive Important Folder Protection

OneDrive moves ahead in a rapid pace when it comes to usability and features and it only gets better and better. The brand-new option called “Folder Protection (Protection for Important Folders)” lets you enable auto backup your local folders so that they are backed up to OneDrive online libraries and more importantly will be available across all your devices allows you to access from anywhere anytime. As a result Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders can now be backed up with latest OneDrive sync client.

Usually how OneDrive function is, you go to your online library and hit “Sync” to synchronize online folders to a device (PC or mobile) or choose the libraries or folders to sync as you sign in to OneDrive client as you set it up first time. Now with this latest option you have the ability to protect your local folders with auto sync to OneDrive.

Let’s see this in action now. You need latest OneDrive Sync Client to be able to get this. Login to your OneDrive portal and you can download it there or simply head on to your OneDrive or SharePoint document library and try to SYNC it and it will suggest you the client download right there.

Once you have the client installed, go ahead and click on the icon to start it out. Or if you already have it, simply right click on the blue cloud icon.

Click on “More” –> Settings

Head on to “Auto Save” tab and click on “Update folders”

Give it a moment

And you are all done !

When the files finish syncing to OneDrive, they’re protected and you can access them from anywhere in Documents, Desktop, or Pictures. When you protect your Desktop folder, the items on your desktop roam with you to your other PC desktops where you’re running OneDrive.

You can protect up to 5 GB of files in OneDrive for free, or up to 1 TB with an Office 365 subscription.

Common Errors:

This Message clearly says the problem we have here. I have chosen a custom location to sync my files earlier. It isn’t going to work with this function. We have to revert it back to default location as it suggest. That can be simply done by resyncing this device.

To do that, go to Settings –> Account Tab and click on “Unlink this PC”. Give it a moment.

And now you can sign in again after unlinking

Provide the Password

Let it be with the default location (C: Drive) this time and hit “Next”

Now let’s go ahead and try to enable the protection.

Change Folder Protection

If you decide to stop protecting or start protecting an important folder in OneDrive, you can update your folders in OneDrive Settings.

Important: When you stop protecting a folder, the files that were already protected by OneDrive stays in OneDrive. If you no longer need those files in OneDrive, you’ll have to to move them to a local folder on your PC by yourself. Any new files you add to that folder on your PC won’t be protected by OneDrive.

To stop protection:

1. Open OneDrive Settings (select the white or blue cloud icon in your notification area, and then select More > Settings.)

2. In Settings, select Auto Save > Update folders.

3. To stop protecting a folder, select Stop protecting and then confirm that you want to stop protection in the Turn off protection dialog box.

Advertisement

OneDrive Quick Tip: How To Properly Stop OneDrive Syncing (Unlink)

OneDrive and OneDrive for business, both these usage types are now been centralized with a single sync (Known as NGSC-Next Generation Sync Client or simply ONEDRIVE) client. Microsoft is actively working on improving OneDrive offerings to give its users a better next level collaboration experience. Nevertheless, there can be some scenarios when you want the link between your local and OneDrive folders and you may decide to keep the file offline instead (this could happen due to various reasons). With this post I’m going to demonstrate how to properly stop syncing OneDrive folders and keep a local copy instead without any data loss.

Step1: First and foremost, you have to ensure that the entire target folder structure including its files are properly synced to your local drives.

To do that ,click on OneDrive icon from your task bar and hit on “Open Folder”

Now your local folders will be opened.  You must ! Ensure that you have enabled “Always available on this device” option for all necessary folders as this option will store a copy of your OneDrive files/folders locally on your device/s. Do not proceed to unlinking without having this enabled across all your folders which you plan to stop sync.

If you have not done this yet, you must do that before you stop syncing. To do that, simply right click on the desired folder and hit “Always available on this device“. With this option you will notice that your local drives getting filled as the files are downloaded to the device.

No we can stop the linking. Head back to your task bar and click on “OneDrive” icon. Hit “More” and go to “Settings” from there.

Direct to “Account tab” and hit “Stop Sync” on the desired location.

Note the message prompt. And hit “Stop Sync” to proceed.

That’s all ! you now have properly stopped syncing your desired location, yet, you have a local copy of your OneDrive location. You can head back to local folder to check if everything is there. I have tried this several times and its proven to work. Nevertheless, feel free to try it with a test location.files first before you do it for real ones.

DISCLAIMER NOTE: This is an enthusiast post and is not sponsored by Microsoft or any other vendor.